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PITTSBURGH (AP) – A western Pennsylvania school district wants a federal judge to dismiss a lawsuit by three transgender students challenging a rule requiring students to use either unisex restrooms or those corresponding to their biological sex.

The Pine-Richland High School students, two who now identify as female and one who identifies as male, sued in October.

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Raleigh, N.C. (AP) – The fate of the North Carolina law governing transgender restroom access rests in the hands of a judge appointed by President George W. Bush who recently sided with the state’s Republican leaders by upholding a voter ID law – but just had that decision overturned by a federal appeals court.

U.S. District Judge Thomas Schroeder, a former corporate lawyer known for representing the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company, scheduled oral arguments for August 1 on whether the state can require transgender people to use restrooms in many public buildings that match their birth certificates, rather than their gender identities.

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Raleigh, N.C. (AP) – More than $176,000 in legal bills have been racked up by North Carolina Republican Gov. Pat McCrory and state GOP legislative leaders to defend the law directing transgender people to use school or government restrooms corresponding to their birth certificate.

According to an Associated Press review of legal bills already submitted and made available through a public records request, law firms in Washington and Charlotte representing legislative leaders have charged more than $129,000 and McCrory’s lawyers have billed nearly $47,000. This is only a partial tab of what state taxpayers are on the hook for as not all of the law firms working on the case have submitted invoices yet and the case is likely to take months if not years to resolve.

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Raleigh, N.C. (AP) – The NBA All-Star Game’s exit from North Carolina because of a law limiting protections for LGBT people represents some of the worst publicity yet for Republican Gov. Pat McCrory’s re-election campaign, even as he dismisses the move as political correctness gone too far.

The 2017 event’s departure from Charlotte deprives the state of an estimated $100 million economic impact. The law known for its restrictions on transgender bathroom access looms large in an election season that includes one of the nation’s most closely watched governor’s races.

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Richmond, Va. (AP) – A federal judge says a transgender teen should not be blocked from using the boy’s bathroom at school while the school board pursues an appeal in the student’s discrimination lawsuit.

U.S. District Court Judge Robert G. Doumar had ordered the Gloucester County School Board in June to let Gavin Grimm use the bathroom corresponding to his gender identity while the court examines the legal issues of his case.

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Austin, Texas (AP) – The fight over bathroom rights for transgender students escalated in Texas on May 31 as the state’s lieutenant governor urged schools to defy the Obama administration while parents of transgender children accused Republican leaders of stoking intolerance and making their kids targets for bullying.

Few states are as publicly and persistently pushing back on transgender rights as Texas. Republican Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick pledged at a press conference to support for schools that refuse to let transgender students use the bathrooms of their choice. Texas is leading an 11-state lawsuit that accuses the federal government of turning schools into “laboratories for a massive social experiment.”

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Richmond, Va. (AP) – The debate over whether transgender students should be able to use the bathrooms that match their gender identity is likely headed to the U.S. Supreme Court after a federal appeals court refused May 31 to reconsider a three-judge panel’s ruling on the matter.

The Gloucester County School Board had asked for a review by the full 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals after a three-judge panel said in a 2-1 decision last month that a Virginia high school discriminated against a transgender teen by forbidding him from using the boy’s restroom.

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Austin, Texas (AP) — Texas and 10 other states are suing the Obama administration over its directive to U.S. public schools to let transgender students use the bathrooms and locker rooms that match their gender identity.

The lawsuit announced May 26 includes Oklahoma, Alabama, Wisconsin, West Virginia, Tennessee, Maine, Arizona, Louisiana, Utah and Georgia. It asks a North Texas federal court to declare the directive unlawful in what ranks among the most coordinated and visible legal challenges by states over the socially divisive issue of bathroom rights for transgender persons.

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Jacksonville – The National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR) is warning the Clay County School Board about disregarding the Department of Education’s transgender guidance.

NCLR sent a legal memorandum May 19, on behalf of Equality Florida, telling the Clay County School Board it is against federal law to discriminate against transgender students and doing so could result in funding loss.

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Miami – The ACLU of Florida is encouraging state officials to support the federal transgender guidance created earlier this month.

In a letter addressed to Gov. Rick Scott, Attorney General Pam Bondi and Florida Department of Education Commission Pam Stewart, the ACLU of Florida urged officials to follow the guidance not only because it is the law, but because “protecting transgender students is simply the right thing to do.”

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Watermark Media was founded by Tom Dyer in Orlando in 1994, and expanded to Tampa Bay in 1995. Dyer is an attorney, former board member of the Metropolitan Business Association and Tampa International Gay & Lesbian Film Festival, and current advisory board member of the Harvey Milk Foundation.

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